Dear Waves,

A student demonstrated with his laptop how easily one could access another computer. The other students were amazed.
(He did not fully show us bad stuff. He showed us enough to show that it could be done, not that he would ever do it.)


Hubby does not trust the internet and so sends his bills in the mail.
I do not trust the U.S. mail.
Hence we have a difference of opinion.
I have encouraged him to use his credit card rather than write checks when possible.

Four people close to me had bank accounts stolen and wiped out and other bank accounts opened in their name and money somehow taken from those banks.
My sis had her social security stolen years ago. That was a big mess that continues.
And I met a guy a few months ago who has to carry an extra ID card so that the police do not arrest him. A weirdo used his name and information and got in serious legal trouble.

About 6 years ago when I last opened a bank account, the person at the bank filling out my paper work told me that someone in her apartment complex had been stealing mail from residents for months -- got credit card numbers and so on. I have no idea if she was telling the truth, but her story was compelling.

So these messes happened the old fashioned way -- stolen checks out of mail boxes, stolen drivers license info, . . . .


-->> How about paying by telephone?
Is using the phone to make payments better than using the internet?

M.

I should clarify that I set up my bills to be paid with my bank credit card and then I set up my bank account to automatically pay the credit card bill monthly .

my thought is that if something goes wrong - I can dispute the credit card charges and my bank account is a bit safer doing it that way.


and I set up alerts on my bank accounts so if anything over a set amount gets charged or withdrawn it sends an email - or you can get a text message.

US Bank has this feature and WAMU used to - I don't know if Chase does.
And not sure about other banks but I would think so.

The alerts are really handy for keeping track of money..

i am ok with phone and checks, generally.

where i am now, a lot of bill payment is actually done at the post-office, in person. you get a payment stub with a postal account number that the money needs to go into. you go to the post office hand the clerk the stub plus the money, they credit it to the account right there and then and give you back your portion of the stub stamped "received" with the postoffice location etc. a lot of people use automated payments to avoid the go-to-postoffice hassle. i prefer having immediate control of money coming out of any account. i would go to the post office.

i too know someone who's had identity theft on two separate occasions, due to mail stolen out of a mailbox (in the US). they use a P.O. box now. that limits theft possibilities, as well as information obtainable from the mail, except for mail which contains sensitive information.

my rent i used to turn in in person. in california for a while i mailed it until the time i got a letter from the landlord saying i was in default. he was mad. i was mad. i had to get him another one, in person. the check eventually got to him - took over a month - same town!



i never mailed him another check - always gave it to the groundskeeper, whom i trusted.

i will use phone/touchtone for some things because the postal service here is known for thefts. technically, it is possible to intercept a phone call. if someone does that, it's nothing to register the touchtone signals OR voice. but the perpetrator must target either you, or the institution to do that.

not so with internet: there are data harvestors (spyware programs) of various types that circulate. they are not targeted at anyone in particular, but may bounce around the net and can hit anyone and everyone. if you get one when it is still new, your anti-spyware program may not even detect it, let alone be able to clean it. there is usually a small enough time frame between when something comes out, and/or becomes widespread, and when major anti-virus/spyware software updates are released that deal with it. but every now and then a major worm comes out that compromises even huge systems at the commercial level, and everybody runs around freaking out. a week later, it's back to business, paying bills online, throwing pictures and personal details up on facebook and whatnot.

bottom line of course is that, nothing is secure. thieves exist, and as long as they do, they will figure out newer and cleverer ways to thieve, to skirt the newer and cleverer physical OR electronic obstacles.

~ waves ~

i think this is a good system. credit cards are bigger batters than individuals when it comes to disputing charges.

when i lived in the US i had my internet provider set up with a revolving payment from my credit card. no particular alerts, but one time the card issuer called me saying they'd suspended my credit card because of "suspicious activity" and would i confirm...... dang internet provider had tried to charge me 7 or 8 times for the same month! rep told me it looked like an error (SOME ERROR!!!) as they had only received paperwork for one time thus far, but wanted to hear from me in case more came in, since the charges didn't match my "spending pattern." i thought that was cool. the bank was ON IT!!!

~ waves ~

2 years ago hubby and i paid off our credit cards...but i still kept the card account open just in case we needed money....this past christmas, I put the cruise expenses on the credit card..to earn a little cash and to have it itemized when the vacation was over. I called them to let them know that I would be making a large purchase and that I would be traveling out of the country incase I needed to use it. They wanted to know the specific dates that I would be out of the country.
bizi

Bizi

That is a good idea. To call them.

I haven't thought of that.

Donna